| Press Release Archive
Storm restoration completed
Power has been restored to all remaining
Austin Energy customers with outages resulting from the November
15th storm.
The last outage case was repaired shortly
after midnight Saturday.
A small number of repair crews remained
on duty overnight and are on duty this morning ready to respond
to any additional outages.
Any Austin Energy customers without power
should call 322-9100.
It is estimated that repairs were needed
at as many as 500 individual locations throughout the Austin
Energy system due to the storm. The tornadoes that struck
Thursday night caused significant damage requiring the replacement
of dozens of power poles and the repairs of numerous cases
of downed power lines.
The majority of repairs involved the replacement
of fuses, which protect equipment and power lines. The fuses
act in the same manner as fuses in the home. In this case
they shut down power lines or equipment when overloads occur
due to lightning strikes or tree limbs falling on power lines
or equipment. If the lines and equipment were not shut down
they would burn up or otherwise be seriously damaged.
The Austin Energy electric system is outfitted
with an estimated 20,000 fuses protecting some 5,000 miles
of overhead power lines, 3,000 miles of underground lines
and more than 60,000 transformers. The system has about 170,000
power poles.
Austin Energy maintained 25-30 repair crews
working around the clock. This required repair crews to work
long shifts, take a break and return for additional shifts.
Another 25-30 contract tree trimming crews were also in service
during the restoration. Also fully staffed around the clock
was the City of Austin Customer Service Center - which is
managed by Austin Energy - with 50-80 Customer Service Representatives
answering telephones at all times.
For more information, contact Ed
Clark, Public Information.
Phone: (512) 322-6514
Pager: (512) 802-2000
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